&quot;Discuss two explanations of attachment&quot;

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Introduction

"Discuss two explanations of attachment" (18 marks) Attachment is a close, emotional, and reciprocal bond between an infant and its primary caregiver. Freud developed the 'Cupboard Love' theory, Freud believed that infants have an innate desire for pleasure and this motivates the infants to seek satisfaction. The first stage is the oral stage which is from birth to 2 years; this is when pleasure is gained orally and stimulation around the mouth. This case would be the pleasure gained from breast feeding, according to Freud this is the only reason why an infant forms an attachment to the mother because she meets their need for pleasure orally and also that the mother is unique and this is the first and strongest love-object and later relationships will go well if this one does. Freud says that attachment is based on feeding but there is evidence that goes against the idea e.g. ...read more.

Middle

Bowlby believed attachment was important for survival because human infants are helpless and need adults to feed, care and protect them or they will not survive. Bowlby believed that human infants are born with an innate ability to form attachments and because attachment is reciprocal. Bowlby had 4 theories; Monotropic: this is the idea that the infant bonds with one special attachment figure, he believed that this was mainly the mother ('A bad mother is better than the best institution' Bowlby). Innate: Bowlby believed that attachment was innate and passed down through evolution. The result is that infants are born programmed to become attached and that adults are also programmed to attach to their infants. This is achieved by certain behaviours that encourage the bond like smiling, crying, cooing, looking cute etc. ...read more.

Conclusion

Bowlby also claims that the mother is the central attachment figure and that the father's only role is to support the mother, but research has shown that fathers have a bigger part to play in attachment than just financial support. Schaffer and Emerson investigated Scottish infants and also found that food was not the most important factor in attachments, they found responsiveness. Researchers observed 64 infants and families from Glasgow. Detailed records were kept of primary attachment figures. They found that over half of all infants studied seemed to have a closer bond with their father as he was the person who played with, bathed the child etc. This study goes against both studies of attachment because the most important factor is responsiveness and not food nor anything else. Overall, Freud's theory is too simplistic and not supported by research other theories are better e.g. Bowlby's Monotropic theory. RLOWHar ?? ?? ?? ?? Lisa Howarth Psychology 1 Dave Berry ...read more.